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its footprints can seldom be found. It is not supposed to 

 leave its nest until early morning or at twilight. I have 

 known of a sitting bird which was dug out and captured 

 on the nest. The eggs have also been discovered in holes 

 on precipices, and rarely, in furze-coverts. Grasses, leaves, 

 and fragments of dry seaweeds, with a warm lining of down, 

 are the building materials used. 



The eggs, seven to twelve in number, are cream- 

 coloured. Incubation usually begins in May. The parent- 

 birds watch over their brood most carefully ; the nestlings 

 are conveyed in safety to the sea by scrambling on to their 

 mother's back. 



Geographical distribution. The Sheld-Duck has a wide 

 breeding-distribution round the British coast. North of 

 Britain it breeds in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and 

 Holland. South of our Isles it reaches the shores of France 

 and Spain, and extends eastward to the Black and Caspian 

 Seas. It is also found on some of the salt lakes of Asia, as 

 far east as Japan, while its winter range extends to the 

 Tropic of Cancer (Saunders). It is at once seen that the 

 Sheld-Duck is less arctic in its breeding-range than are 

 most of the Wild Geese and Swans. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Head and upper neck, 

 dark glossy-green, below which is a white collar, while at 

 the root of the neck is a broad chestnut band extending 

 across the upper part of the back and breast ; rest of back, 

 white ; breast and abdomen, white, interrupted by a broad 

 dark brown median line ; scapulars and primaries, nearly 

 black ; alar speculum, 1 green, bounded behind by a line of 

 chestnut ; tail, white, tipped with black ; wing-coverts, 

 white. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar in colour to the male 

 but duller in pattern. 2 



Adult winter, male and female. Similar to the nuptial 

 plumage. 



Immature, male and female. Head and neck, dark 

 mouse-colour, the feathers being finely edged with dull 



1 The alar speculum is the bright lustrous patch on the secondaries. 



2 Like the Geese the sexes of the Sheld-Duck are almost similar in 

 plumage, and the male does not assume an ' eclipse ' dress. 



